


A Shitty Car, A Shitty Night, A Shitty Romance

by The_Bi_Gondola_Incident



Category: Saints Row
Genre: Bi-Monthly at the most, Fluff, M/M, Monthly updates, Mutual Pining, POV Alternating, Sfw and everything, Slow Burn, but they don't get it because I made them both idiots, hence the slow burn, like really slow burn, not dead I promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-22 02:53:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15572106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Bi_Gondola_Incident/pseuds/The_Bi_Gondola_Incident
Summary: Kinzie's idea for a chore wheel goes wrong when it "chooses" the two most standoffish saints to spend the night out in virtual Steelport together. This wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the fact that that night a realization had hit the boss leaving the two set for mutual pining seas.





	A Shitty Car, A Shitty Night, A Shitty Romance

**Author's Note:**

> A short preface: The Boss's name (Diede) in this context is pronounced like the word "Deed." Other than that, enjoy!

“This has gone too far, Boss. You’re actively slowing down the revolution that you wanted to start by choosing him!”

He was insulted. “That is absolute bullshit, Kinzie and you know it! Having him around me does nothing but help our cause and frankly…” He turned away. “I think you’re jealous.”

She pulled back in a mixture of perturb and anger. “Jealous? Jealous!?” She slammed her fist onto the table, causing papers to fly everywhere. “I’m concerned about the sake of humanity! About the well-being of the crew! About- About him!”

The meeting room may have been full, but when she rose in that moment, she might’ve well been the only person there. She lunged forward and stared Diede down with her flaming, aggrieved eyes.

“You taking Keith David on every single mission ends tonight!”

For a moment, silence. But finally the crew roared with applause.  
Around the table they all sat: Shaundi, Pierce, CID, an incredibly embarrassed Keith David, Benjamin, Asha and, of course, Matt, who was normally absent for meetings he deemed a waste of time, but Diede elected to ignore this.  
Personally, he hardly payed attention to Matt’s presence as it was. Like most former enemies of the Saints, he was taken down pretty easily and with minor humiliation on his part. After that he just left the states and from then on The Boss never really thought of him again. It was as if the boringness of their confrontation put him off from caring whether or not he was around. So what if he was on the ship? If he wasn’t a Saint and wasn’t a badass like Asha then who gives a shit?  
Besides, that night, they had gathered for a much, much more important purpose:  
An intervention.

With the cheers dying down it was now Shaundi that stood to confront him.

“Look, I have no idea why you’re obsessed with Keith, but knock it off! I thought I was becoming clingy and here you are practically sewing him to your hip!”

“I enjoy his company! What’s wrong with that?!”

“Oh sure, you enjoy his company but have you ever stopped to wonder if he enjoys yours!?”

Suddenly every head turned to Keith David in anticipation. He remained speechless and uncomfortable. Ben scooted his chair away from him.

Shaundi bit her lip and glowered at him suspiciously. “Well?”  
The Boss looked at him pleadingly. “Keith, we’re friends… Right?”

His eyes moved to her first, then to him. Finally, he slowly inched open his mouth, conscious that every gaze in the room was on him.  
“Speaking from a totally objective point of view… I think that maybe… you need to... diversify who you take with you into the simulation!”

Diede fell back in anguish as Shaundi beamed. Betrayal! Treachery! A breach of his very trust! At this moment he couldn’t even face the man he once called his “Super Bestest (Not Dead) Friend In The Galaxy.”  
Luckily, he didn’t have to. Because in that moment his eyes met the cyan gaze of the ship’s biggest recluse, now attending the meeting with half-hearted enthusiasm and a Game Boy Advance in his pocket. He saw the face of Matt Miller. For the first time he actually saw the weird little stowaway in person; not in virtual space, or a voice over a headset or covered head to toe with pink slime. And for a second, while he would refuse to admit it later, time stopped for Diede as the realization hit him like a train.

‘Holy shit. He’s... pretty.’  
Fuck, was he pretty. His light blue eyes, so sharp and dramatic they could stop a beating heart, with meticulous eyeliner to match. And contrasting against them; his heavy brow and dark hair like the beautiful void of space surrounding them. The bridge of his nose was covered in light freckles that mimicked stars littered through the universe. And his round, soft face; light like ivory. Like the moon itself! He was... space personified and it had all hit The Boss in that moment so hard, he felt like his soul was engulfed by a supernova.

‘Fuck, fuck, fuck, shit, okay. Wait, this is feelings!?’ He could hardly breath fast enough to keep up with his heartbeat.  
‘Christ, how have I never noticed this before?! Why is he suddenly… attractive?! I mean, Jesus, Diede! This was the kid who, six years ago, crashed your fucking helicopter and tried to murder you in cyberspace! Fuck, I know you’re not exactly decent but even you can do better than-’  
He stopped himself to look back, just to see if he was real.  
‘Ah fuck. Nope. This is really happening. What… happened in the last six years since I first saw him?’  
He thought back to their stand-off in Steelport, back when Matt was still a teenager and an embarrassing one at that. The kid was pale, lanky, had a really dumb haircut-  
Okay, looking back not much has changed. But when Diede looked at him now, there was just something different. Something that was… Beautiful?

 

Throughout his life, The Boss never really understood the point of caring about other people’s appearances. Of course he knew basic things like how Shaundi was considered pretty and Pierce was considered handsome; stuff that was the general consensus that he didn’t really have to comment on. To be really honest, before that moment he didn’t exactly know what he found attractive in other people. Sure he dated around, all for the sake of Hollywood; 7 straight male celebrities who wanted to “shock the media,” one date with Lucy Li which was more of a friend thing, and half a year with the lead singer of Neon Trees (By far, that was the weirdest one). Even with them he felt nothing, but for some shitty, weird, universally faited or some bullshit reason at that moment, when he looked at that cringy self-proclaimed “cyber god...”  
He felt something. And it was frightening.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Boss? Boss!” Called Pierce as he propped the man back onto his chair. He shook his head and laughed. “You really need to learn how to take rejection better.”  
Hearing this, he adjusted back into the situation now with a solemn expression and a determination to put his newfound… feelings into the back of his mind, if not erase them completely. So, back to the matter at hand.

“I can’t say that I’m not… hurt by that, Keith. As far as I was aware we always had fun hanging out together but apparently, that wasn’t the case.” He choked back a fake sob and looked away dramatically but still peaked out just enough to see if he was gaining sympathy. He wasn’t. Shaundi sighed and placed a motherly hand on his shoulder.  
“Reign back the bullshit a little, it’s starting to stink.”  
With that, she slapped his shoulder enough to cause The Boss to wince back at the sting. 

He turned to her in shock and hurt. “Rude!”

She raised her eyebrows at him.

“But fair…” He sighed. He had lost. Accepting this he leaned back, propping his legs onto the table. “So what now? Who am I supposed to take on missions with me if not Keith?” He sat up defensively. “And don’t say Tanya! Last time we were out she tried to shank me twice and drew blood the third time.”

Hearing this, Kinzie beamed and ducked under the table in a flash. When she popped back up she was holding a large, circular appliance roughly the size of a small tire swing. It resembled a clock, showing each crew member’s face in place of the numbers.

‘Wait, I recognize this,’ thought The Boss with dismay. ‘It’s… It’s…’

“The Kensington Patented, Family-Friendly, Press Secretary Approved, Third-Street Saints Chore Wheel!” She coughed. “TM.”

Diede groaned, Shaundi rolled her eyes, Ben shook his head, Pierce squinted skeptically ad Keith David muttered “Not again,” under his breath. Meanwhile, the two who were not members of the cabinet looked on in confusion.

Asha spoke up, still unsure if she should ask. “And what in hell’s name is-”

“The Kensington Patented, Family-Friendly, Press Secretary Approved, Third-Street Saints Chore Wheel? TM?” Asked Kinzie excitedly. She inhaled heavily and hoisted the wheel onto the table with a bang.  
“I first created the KPFPSATSCH a few years ago during The Boss’s dumpster fire of a presidency back when someone still gave a shit about approval ratings.” She glanced at Diede but continued on.  
“So I built a piece of software so that whenever he screwed up so heinously that impeachment was imminent,” She motioned to the faces on the device. “One staff member would be randomly chosen to take one for the team and get convicted of treason.”

Asha was horrified, her head shaking slowly and mouth agape. “That’s obstruction of justice! At the presidential level! Mass corruption! If the world had caught on, you would all be dead for attempting that!”

“Firstly, we didn’t just ‘attempt’ it. We pulled it off four or five times every year. Secondly,” she shrugged and tilted her head uncaringly. “The voters were never really smart enough to catch on. After all, they had already elected a fucking celebrity to be president.”

For a moment the room hung in silence, each of them having the strangest sense of relief that the world had ended in 2013. What horrors could have awaited them if the earth had made it to, say, 2018? Individually they each shook off the feeling and returned to examining the wheel.

“Wait,” questioned Pierce, crossing his arms. “Where’s your picture, Kinzie?”

“That’s DLC.” She said, not making eye contact. “Anyways, to spin it you-”

“Kinzie.” Diede frowned. Kinzie rolled back her head sluggishly and looked at him crabbily.  
“I already went through the effort of putting this together with barely anything to work with! I had to dismantle the light system in the bathroom just to get it running! Shouldn’t that count for something?”

“Wait, you took out the bathroom lights?” Pitched in Shaundi. “Kinzie, how the fuck are we supposed to see?!”

“Shower with a flashlight: problem solved. My point is, I should be exempt for building the wheel in the first place.”

“You know what? Fine,” Started The Boss. “Either you fix the wheel or...” He paused to make sure she was listening.  
“Or I take away your bean bag chair.”

She was floored.“Hell no! That’s totally theft of my personal property, you can’t do that!”

He smiled smugly. “No laws in space, Kinzi. I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

She stood for a moment before letting out a huff and holding out a flashdrive.  
“Fine. But if, when you’re in the simulation, you call me and just happen to turn into an… object, remember I have absolutely no control over that.”

He took the flash drive with a smile and plugged it into the device. “I think I can live with that.”  
With the drive inserted her face appeared on the wheel alongside the others, making it an even eight.

“Now if you’re satisfied with yourself can we please spin the wheel already?”

“For once I agree with her, Boss,” Said Pierce. “The anticipation is killer!”

“Don’t tell me you actually want to be chosen for a ride-along with the boss?” Asked Shaundi before spotting Diede visibly offended. “No offense, Boss, but…”

“You make us do some pretty dumb shit.” Pointed out Ben.

Diede frowned and furrowed his brow causing King to roll his eyes and lean back.

“You’ve made us go scarf shopping with you because we have ‘an impeccable fashion sense’.”

“Or made us take part in a 500 man shootout because you were bored.” Remarked Asha.

“Run a flaming monster truck off a bridge at 200 miles per hour because we ‘can’t die in the simulation,’” Mentioned Kinzie.  
“Have a live snake duel with you and then mother you when you lose/ get bitten eight times.” Recalled Shaundi.

“...Or just have a super dope time hanging out together and being carefree just like the old days?” Asked Pierce cheerfully. “I don’t know about y’all but I legitimately appreciate spending time with the Boss.”

“Pierce… that’s really sweet of you to-”

“When he’s not being a complete asshole and ditching you in the Freckle Bitch parking lot cause he just spotted a Golden CID and didn’t want to wait for your ass so now you gotta find your own way back to the gateway all while you can faintly hear Haddaway playing in the background and you’re cussing him out in your mind but you know for a fact he doesn’t give a shit because ‘none of it’s real, Pierce’ but that shit still hurts!”

Everyone stopped and stared at Pierce. He nodded sadly, pointing at Diede who had begun to remember the entire thing and… in retrospect felt kinda bad about it. Ben King shook his head in shame and laid a hand on Pierce’s shoulder. Pierce himself seemed pretty shaken up by the whole story meaning he was probably sitting on all that emotion the entire time.

‘Well shit.’ Thought The Boss. ‘That was what? One, two, three… six weeks ago?’ He visibly winced.  
‘Yeah. I fucked up pretty badly. Sure, I got the CID and it was probably pretty awesome looking too but… That was a pretty shitty thing to do to Pierce.’

He was almost about to express this and apologize to Pierce but at that very moment, it was Matt, who hadn’t said a word since arriving at this, the first meeting he’d ever attended who…  
Broke into laughter.

Cackling, rocking back and forth, Matt let out a high-pitched fit of hysterics causing every eye in the room to switch from The Boss to him. And Diede, now out of the headlights and into the passenger seat, was conflicted.  
The newfound tender side of him who had only come into existence a couple of minutes ago thought that his laugh was adorable. The way his nose scrunched up as he expressed this pure joy made Diede’s heart drop and filled him with such a warmness he’d never felt before.

Meanwhile, the childish asshole side thought this was fucking hysterical because he also looked like an albino chipmunk in an ill-fitting Hot Topic haircut having a breakdown that really put the emo in “emotional.” Personally he could hardly keep himself from laughing out loud in response. The others however were… less enthused.

It was Shaundi who jumped up in a rage and grabbed him by the neck, baring her teeth with pure contempt for the bastard.  
“You smarmy, self-absorbed, bratty little shithead! Pierce just opened his fucking soul to us and you have the audacity to laugh at it!?” Using only the hand wrapped around his shirt she heaved Miller off the floor and held him up at her mercy.

Her motivations in this moment were pretty clear, at least to Diede, that was. As much as he wanted Shaundi and Pierce to get along, the two mixed like oil and water; where “oil” took credit for all of “water’s” ideas and “water” leaked “oil’s” number to half the lonely male population of Steelport. Shaundi wouldn’t do anything for Pierce, let alone threaten someone for mocking one of his sob stories. So what was driving her to cause such a scene?  
Maybe it was contempt for how much he threatened the crew and how little he had done to just be forgiven by The Boss. Maybe it was that out of everyone who died meaninglessly in one fell swoop back on Earth, he was the unworthy one who made it out alive. Maybe it was that every time Shaundi looked into that pale, unmoved boyish face, all she saw was the man who barely six years ago took part in the syndicate and aided the man that, in cold blood, murdered her mentor and father-figure and left an unfillable hole of guilt and regret in her once magnificent heart that would never recover again. The sad aspect to Diede in that story was that… he understood. Johnny's death ended something in the Boss. Something that would never return to him. Something that was blown out back in that plane in Steelport, along with Johnny's brains, Shaundi's happiness, and Diede’s heart.  
So maybe that was why she hated Miller. But while he couldn't blame her, the dude's face was turning blue and Shaundi needed to drop him immediately.

“ECCHHH ACCHHH SHAUNDI STOP!” Let out Miller with a gasp. Choking rather quickly, at least in Diede’s opinion, Matt struggled in her grasp, kicking and gasping but not inconveniencing her in the slightest.

“Shaundi, that’s- Okay, I gotta be honest, that’s really cool and you never cease to amaze me with how dope you are.” She nodded in acknowledgment but didn’t look back. Diede shut his eyes in preparation for the chewing-out of the century.  
“That being said, you’re probably gonna kill him and you should maybe… stop?”

Instantly her neck snapped back, her eyes aflame and her veins pulsing. She tightened her grip on the nerd.  
In that moment, The Boss practically pissed himself.

“What was that, Boss? I couldn’t hear you over the sound-” she squeezed tighter. “Of-” squeeze. “His-” squeeze. “Windpipe-” squeeze. “Collapsing!”

The blood of frustration was rushing to his face now, Shaundi wasn’t listening and Matt (the lightweight) was choking out. The emotions now bubbling inside him told him to tackle her but how could he explain that? ‘Hey remember yesterday when I threatened to throw Miller out the airlock for leaving his wet laundry on the bathroom floor? Wellllll, he’s apparently hot now so stop please??’ Uhg, even he would’ve beaten himself up for saying something as asinine as that.

“Drop my assistant this instant, Shaundi, or I’ll ensure we arrange a double-funeral instead.” Asha was standing now, one leg positioned in front of the other like a mama lion ready to strike. At the sight of this, Shaundi let loose her grip on Matt, dropping him to the ground where he laid either unconscious but alive.  
‘Even the way he passes out is somehow endearing. Just fuckin great.’

Now Shaundi was always an exceptionally tall woman, going on 6,4 and being as terrifyingly, unnaturally strong as she was. Hell, she was so intimidating that The Boss himself knew not to fuck with something she cared about as deeply as revenge.  
Asha was another terrifying person in her own way and while she didn’t meet Shaundi’s eye-level, her hands could still meet her face. Not to mention Diede also once saw her rip a Golden CID to scrap metal using only her teeth.  
So there they stood: the two Amazonian-esque power-houses facing each other from across the table, the other crew members waiting with dread for confrontation, Diede praying a fight wouldn’t break out for him to have to get in between and finally Matt who had; for the first time in his life, potentially two women fighting over him and he wasn’t even awake to see it. Granted the context was a little off, but the whole situation definitely would’ve gone to his ego was he conscious.

Finally, Shaundi spoke. “And why should I go easy on him? Huh?” She tilted her head genuinely and looked at Diede with a face of such sincerity that it threw him off completely.  
“Really, I want to know why are we keeping this asshole around?”

She gestured at Asha who was also confused by the sudden legitimacy in her tone. “If you want an MI6 agent around for whatever reason, there’s Asha. She may not be nice but she kicks ass and didn’t try to kill us.”

She pointed at Kinzie who was still holding up the wheel but whose full attention was on the situation. “You want someone good with tech for the simulation? We needed Miller for that once. Once! He got us one step closer to Zinyak and we can go on by ourselves now. Kinzie can pick up any of the slack, she’s done it before.”

She took a step closer to Diede, the rare honesty in her dark eyes struck a chord with him. ‘She… really cares about this, doesn’t she?’  
“If you want a friend, you have Pierce. You have me! If you want someone to mentor, I know Young Shaundi’s probably still out there in Steelport, feeling just as alone as I did back then. You wanna talk Nyteblade fanfiction? I’ve read Keith’s secret journals and it’s awe-inspiring. A judgemental weirdo who’s bad at social cues? SID. Hell, someone to borrow scarves from!? Benjamin Motherfucking King is right here! We don’t need Miller! So why do we let him stay?”

Diede looked back at Shaundi, trying to say something; anything that could defend Matt in that moment, but… Looking into the eyes of his now oldest living friend, the woman that he trusted more than… more than his own mother. Shaundi who never would’ve left a Saint behind, not after what happened to Johnny, was there telling him to let this person die.  
But of course, that’s how he was too, right?

In his entire time with the Saints, unless they were a part of his crew The Boss never cared about one person. People; he could feel guilty about killing. People were a big deal, especially when you had a brand to uphold, but a person? A person could die on the street because Diede was driving and didn’t want to take the long way. A person could die in a Friendly Fire because they couldn’t get the money out fast enough. A person could die because The Boss had just gotten a new rifle and wanted to try it out. A person could die. And less than 24 hours ago Matt was just a person. And honestly he still sort of was. So what if he made him feel things? So did his friends. So did Loa Dust! So did Johnny…  
Feeling something for a person didn’t mean love, especially when all you knew about them was that they were pretty. Maybe in another life he could have known him better, talked to him more, seen something sooner! But he didn’t.  
So he didn’t have an argument for Matt.  
And he didn’t say anything to Shaundi, because he knew that any excuse he made wouldn’t have been genuine.  
So he looked back into Shaundi’s eyes, his heart heavy and low, and told her the only words his mind could muster to summarize everything he knew Matt was good for.  
And those words were  
“I don’t know.”  
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And that would’ve been the way it ended if it weren’t for the only crewmember with any semblance of empathy: Keith David Williams.

“Are- Are you all being legitimately serious right now?” Bewilderment on his face, he looked between the dead serious Shaundi and Diede and back at the other members of the crew to confirm that they were aware of what was going on too. Why they simply stared back, unquestioning the logic of the situation, he fucking lost it.

“No?!” He shouted, shaking his head in awe. “You all collectively decide to kill a man: a man who, might I remind you, is one of the last LIVING PEOPLE IN THE GALAXY, and why?! Because he annoys you?! So you kill him?! What the honest fuck is wrong with you people?!”

Shaundi sighed and patted his shoulder. “Keith, it’s not that simple, you know-”

“Don’t try to explain shit to me, you just tried to kill our housemate!”

“He’s more like a coworker, but-”

“And you want him dead!” Keith threw his hands up into the air at the pure insanity of the situation while Asha nodded emphatically. “Look, the kid might be a pest to you but killing him needlessly when he makes up 11% of the population is ludacris!”

“Actually,” pitched in Kinzie with a wicked grin, “that’s not entirely true. You see, back before he joined MI6, Matt cause quite a lot chaos in the States, as you know. To get out of being charged with the surplus of crimes he was wanted for, he retired back to England and became a government worker to pay off the charges he amassed there, but not clearing his name in the U.S. Flash forward to when The Boss was elected president, the only way to bring his cabinet with him (and get them out of a few too many life sentences in prison) was to give each and every one of us Presidential Pardons.” She leaned in very closely to articulate her next point with a smile.  
“Except for Matt.”  
She broke out in victorious laughter and almost instantly continued on, still tittering to herself. “As far as the American government is concerned,” She pointed to the crew, being the only remaining bureaucrats in the universe. “He could potentially serve 28 non-negotiable death sentences at this very moment! We can kill him whenever we want, guys!”

Kinzie began applauding enthusiastically, finally getting to once and for all do away with Miller. However, strangely enough, no one else was clapping with her. As she noticed this, her cheers died down and she looked around her perplexed.

“Wait, you guys heard me correctly, right. We can kill Miller totally guilt free... Woo?”

Ben King looked down quietly and sighed. “To be real, I don’t know how I feel about that.”

Kinzie furrowed her brow in utter confusion. “You’re kidding me. You’re absolutely kidding. You, infamously bloody multimillionaire former gang leader Benjamin King, have an issue with killing a guy?!”

He shook his head solemnly. “Not just ‘a guy,’ Kinzie. A guy who trusts us. He’s outnumbered on this ship and he knows it. He has to put a lot of faith into this crew not to get at us before we get him first. He helped us in our goddamn hour of need and this is how you wanna thank him?” He risked disappointedly at her. “We all deserve second chances. After all,”

He looked Diede dead in the eyes. “Isn’t that what you gave me?”

Shaundi budded in between them, upset that this decision wasn’t clear to them. “This is not going to be an argument right now! This is bullshit, and you know it, Ben!”

“A man’s life is at stake! What more important argument is there?!”

“If it’s Matt Miller, I’d say ‘What to Have For Dinner?’ means more than that little shit.” Said Shaundi, matter-of-factly.

“Two supporting and three opposed,” CID stated out of nowhere.

“What?”

“The vote.” He blinked his cycloptic robot eye blankly. “Two crew members supporting the murder of Matt Miller and three opposing it. Is this not how your former planet resolved deadlocked issues such as this?”

“Well... yeah,” admitted Shaundi. “But typically a death sentence wasn’t up for debate, CID.”

 

And before Diede’s brain had a chance to stop it, his mouth jumped ahead and said it.  
“I think a vote is a great idea!”

Simultaneously, both Shaundi and Kinzie whipped around to yell at him and yet… when Shaundi saw the strange look in his eye only Kinzie actually spoke.

“Stop! Stop! Don’t you see? We’re so close to getting him out of our lives, please Boss! If you want to, I’ll do it personally, point blank! Please!”

Pierce sat up too, now recovered him his emotional monologue. “If a vote’s going down, then sign me up for the ‘kill Matt’ side. Bitch had it coming ever since he snatched my eyeline- Er, I mean, man… product! Yeah, Man-Product! Anyways, kill ‘em!”

Kinzie fell to her knees in desperation. “Please, Boss! If you do this for me, I swear I’ll never talk back to you again. I’ll change! I’ll even put the lights back in the bathroom! Whatever you want, just let me have this!”

Kinzie begged with such earnest pleading that Diede almost wanted to give in. But… He looked down at the unconscious edgelord who was still slumbering away peacefully. He let loose a smile. ‘I’m really stuck with him for the long haul, aren’t I?’ He returned his gaze to his friends; his family, all of whom he had known for years and who he was about to forsake just for a pretty face and a chance at something resembling... love. The Boss looked away dramatically and struck a pose with his hand on his chest and his legs poised with one behind the other.

“A great man, one might argue that he was the second best president to ever live, once said that a house divided against itself cannot stand. So rather than forcing you, which would probably result in a mutiny, I’ll give you a proposition here. Kinzie, what would it take to convince you and the rest of the crew that Matt deserves to live?”

She was devastated. Her one chance at victory against her most hated enemy; gone. Looking away, she wiped a tear from her eye and once again faced The Boss, now cold and unforgiving.  
“The only way… I would ever even think about forgiving that worthless, shitty little asshole…. would be for him to walk through fucking hell and back.”

Then, she sat up proudly, adjusted her collar and exhaled coolly. The next words from her lips would change not only the entire course of human history but, more importantly, both Diede and Matthew’s entire lives from that point onwards.  
“Luckily, or unluckily for you two, I can put you through it.”


End file.
